Blog
Monthly Archive: Febuary 2016
Time for Nothing
Posted on Monday, February 22, 2016
When I first started working on Nothing, Glyn Maxwell and I decided to create a version of Janne Teller's story which could be presented entirely by a young cast. Alongside the 50 or so young singers involved, there are 5 professional singers who all act as part of the class. In the pit alongside the 20-30 talented young amateur players are the South Bank Sinfonia, an orchestra made up of young professional players. So the original vision has come to pass that the entire story on stage and in the pit is told almost exclusively by young people. Given the nature of the story, (in which a class of school kids effectively stray further and further into a collective madness in an attempt to prove to their classmate Pierre that life has meaning) I hope that the feeling the young people are literally running the show will make the whole thing feel even more powerful. Their passion and committment to the project I hope will not just scare the life out of you, but also give you hope for the future of humanity. It's great to see them commit so fully to quite an intense and dark tale.
Dress rehearsals today, followed by opening night on Thursday. Radio 3 Music Matters came down to see the rehearsals and talk to us, and you can hear the feature on the iplayer here http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0717282 about 13 mins in.
